Using Hydromagic on a pay-per-use base
Eye4Software is proud to offer a new service: Using Hydromagic on a pay-per-use base.
This means that you can use the full version of the software to do post processing without the need to install the software or buy a license.
This might come in handy when you rented the software in combination with hardware, and you need to do so some post processing after you returned the USB dongle. Another scenario might be when you need to deliver some data to a client, while your colleague is out in the field and has the dongle on the boat.
Please note that this cloud based solution can only be used to process survey data, and not to perform surveys !
With pay-per-use, you simply logon to your GeoCloud account, upload your project and start working.
To make this possible, we use the GeoCloud platform.
Costs involved
When working in the cloud, you pay a small amount per hour (about three US dollars) to use the software and storage space.
As soon as you stop and delete the environment and storage, no more money will be deducted from your account.
The service works on a prepaid base, which means that you have to top up your account using a creditcard.
Upon request, other payment methods are available as well. The more you use this service, the cheaper it will become per hour.
Getting started
The first step is to, if you haven't done already, create an account with GeoCloud.
To do so, click the "Workplace" button at the top of the page.
The workplace is the control panel where you can select your application, and where you can logon to your personal workplace.
If you haven't done so, now is the time to register a new GeoCloud account by clicking the "Register" button:
Just enter all the required information to setup your account.
You can create a custom account or create an account by using an existing Google account.
When your account has been created, logon by clicking the "Log In" button:
After a successful login, you will see your name and your account balance at the top of the screen.
The second amount is the hourly cost which will be zero except when you have an instance of a software package or storage started.
Top up your credit balance
After creating an account you cannot run software since your account balance will be zero.
To top up this balance, click the down arrow next to your name and select the "Billing" option.
From the page that appears you can make an one time payment to top up the account balance.
Your creditcard will be charged only once. When your account balance reaches zero, you have to top up manually.
After payment, go back to the workplace. The new account balance should now be displayed in the upper-right corner of the webpage.
Creating an instance of the application
When back at the workplace, locate the Hydromagic Application and click the "Select" button.
Set the quantity to '1' if not set already, and click the "Create Apps" button that will appear at the bottom of the page.
A popup should now appear which asks you to choose a storage size. Please note that this storage is used to store your project on, and will also be used to store files generated from Hydromagic. In most cases one or five Gigabyte should be sufficient. Select the desired storage space and click "Create".
Starting the application
After selecting the storage, both the storage and application will be created. The only thing left to do is to start them.
Make sure you start the storage before starting the computer. The start operation can take a few minutes.
NOTE: From the time you are starting the storage and the computer, your credit will be charged !
When stopped the charge is far less, but won't be zero until you delete the storage and application by clicking the trash bin icons!
Transfer your project
When your storage is running and the computer is starting, you can already upload your project files.
To do so, click the "File Manager" in the left sidebar of the webpage. You can use the upload button to upload a project.
Alternatively you can use the RDP connection to the computer to upload your files.
We will cover this in the "Connecting to the computer" paragraph.
Connecting to the computer
When both the storage and computer are up and running, your screen should look like the screenshot below.
To connect to the computer running Hydromagic, simply click the "Open Desktop" button.
Depending on your web browser and its security settings, the RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) utility file on your computer will be started.
If it is not started automatically, a file with .rdp extension is downloaded to your computer. Locate the download and double-click the file.
You can also use this connection on a tablet, Linux or MacOS based PC, as long as a Windows RDP client has been installed.
A popup window should now appear, verifying that you really want to connect to this external computer.
Click "Connect" to continue. After a successful connection you will be prompted to enter the password.
You can simply copy this from the workspace page by clicking the "Copy password" button. Use Ctrl-V to paste the password into the credentials dialog.
After a few seconds you will be connected to the desktop containing the Hydromagic software.
After a short moment, a folder containing your upload files should appear on the desktop as well.
You can now start using the software. To transfer additional files to the Hydromagic desktop, go to Windows explorer on your own
computer, select the file to copy and press Ctrl-C on the keyboard. On the remote computer use Ctrl-V to paste the file (on Windows clients only).
Ending the session
When your work has been done, select the "Disconnect" option from the start menu on the remote desktop.
The next step is to shutdown the remote computer by clicking the "Stop" button.
Please make sure that you use the "File Manager" to transfer your work back to your own computer.
When done, you can stop the storage and click the trash bin icons to completely delete the storage and (virtual) computer(s).
Please double check if you successfully transferred your data before doing so, as there is no way to get the data restored once the storage has been deleted !
Before closing the browser, make sure that the rate below your account credit is set to $0.00 per hour,
otherwise you will be charged to keep the computer and storage stored on the server.